Almost There
by Brightgemini
Summary: After their long, traumatic stay in the Cretaceous Era, Abby and Connor have finally found an anomaly that will take them back to the 21st century, however, it quickly becomes clear that there timing is a little off... Abby/Connor. There will be mature/dark subject matter and depictions of PTSD.


**Right, so this is an idea I've been flirting with for a while, so I hope it's enjoyable!**

* * *

A few months ago, if you had asked Connor Temple what he would enjoy doing most on a sunny Saturday morning in May, moving boxes out of a loft was the last thing he would have said and yet he was now sure, nothing could have made him happier. Of course, it wasn't just any loft, it was Abby Maitland's loft, and he was moving the boxes out of it because she had come to the decision that he could graduate from being the annoyance on her sofa to being her flatmate. She quite liked having him around. She had said those exact words. He couldn't keep from grinning at that, feeling a genuine joy that had all but eluded him since Tom had died a few weeks prior.

He faltered a little. Poor Tom. He had accepted quite some time ago that he might die doing this job, which was not a pleasant thought, but it had never occurred to him that he would bring that danger into the lives of his friends. Abby kept suggesting that he give Duncan a call or mentioning that he should have him around once his room was set up properly, but the idea made his stomach twisted a little. In light of recent events, Duncan was likely better off without him.

"Connor?" Abby's voice pulled him out of his thoughts.

Poking his head over the edge of the loft, he gave her a curious look, "I'm up here. Nearly done clearing out the closet."

"That's going to have to wait, I'm afraid." Abby shook her head, "Cutter called. There's an anomaly."

He gave a slight sigh. He had hoped to get his room finished today, but as usual, the universe seemed to have other plans. "I'll be right down."

* * *

"I don't care what's on the other side, I'm going through it." Abby announced, eyes shining with joyful tears as she stared past the Spinosaurus to the anomaly beyond.

Connor knew what she was feeling. After their extended stay in the Cretaceous, he too was practically drooling at the possibility of going home, but he did wish she was a little more focused on the problem at hand, "We're going to have to get by 'im first."

It seemed an impossible task, even if they managed to get around the creature, it would likely immediately follow them through the Anomaly and kill them and whoever else might be on the other side. A glint of silver caught both their attention and Abby frowned, "That's my blanket… wait here, I have an idea."

Connor watched in horror as Abby darted away from their hiding place, grabbing the foil blanket and vanishing into the woods with it. He held his breath, waiting for her to return, but when she did, he actually felt worse. She'd brought the raptor back with her, tempting it to follow her with the shiny foil emergency blanket, leading it straight into the path of the Spinosaurus. She was being clever, as always, he realized as the larger theropod lunged at the smaller, creating just the distraction they needed. Returning to their hiding place, Abby offered Connor her hand, which he willingly too, grinning brightly at her, "You're brilliant."

"I know." She replied cheekily, giving him a tug, "Come on!"

Hand in hand, they darted around to two fighting dinosaurs and through the anomaly. The immediate environment on the other side of the anomaly looked promising, a fact that he stated out loud. They were in the middle of a street lined with modern cars and tall buildings that suggested they had at least landed in the correct decade, though unlike in the science fiction films he had once loved so much, there wasn't a conveniently placed news paper laying around to give them an exact date.

"Are we back?" Abby breathed, "Connor? Are we home?"

There was something so hopeful about her voice in a way he hadn't heard in such a long time that he was almost afraid to be the one to point out to her that they didn't know exactly when or where they were. It seemed, however, that he wouldn't have to be. Staring over her shoulder, he hesitantly pointed past her, "Um, Abby…"

A little over ten feet away, a familiar figure had come around the corner of one of the buildings and stopped dead, his face a mask of shock. Abby wheeled around, her voice little more than a strangled whine as she laid eyes on him after so long. "Stephen."

Stephen looked like he wanted to say something, but he was quickly distracted as a much younger Abby and Connor rounded the corner behind him. His arm shot out, holding them back in a protective manner, "Whoa, wait… something's not right."

They were all eerily silent for a long moment, staring at each other in shock and confusion while they all seemed to consider the best reaction to what they were seeing. Abby was staring at Stephen more than their young dopplegangers, he noted, a knot twisting in his gut. She liked him, he recalled, really liked him. In their desperation to get home, Connor hadn't really given much thought to what it would mean for their relationship once other options were available again, or at least, not in a long time. But now, for just a minute, the old thoughts and insecurities raised their ugly head again. He had, after all, never really been her first choice and after all the suffering they'd endured, maybe she would want to just forget what they had and move on to better things.

Seeming to make up his mind about something, Stephen took a step towards them, but froze again when Abby responded by taking a very deliberate step back. Trying to not feel a little pleased with her reaction, Connor angled his body so he was slightly ahead of her, his posture clearly protective. It took some will power to not instinctively growl the way he had learned to do when intimidating certain predators that threatened their territory. Seeming to read their apprehension, Stephen held up his hands in an attempt to appease them, "Hey… hey, it's okay."

He recognized that tone of voice, he realized, it was the voice Stephen used to talk to wild animals that were potentially skittish and unpredictable. That must be what they looked like to them, with their wild hair and tattered clothes and eyes that had seen all together too much. Giving Abby a reassuring look, Connor took a tentative half step forward, "Stephen-"

"Is there a reason we're all just standing around staring at the…" The painfully familiar voice cut him off and then died off itself as Cutter joined the rest of the team at the corner of the building and his gaze settled on the scene unfolding there. He did a quick double take between the two sets of Abby Maitlands and Connor Temples, as if verifying what he was actually seeing. "What in the world…?"

"We… we were in there." Connor offered as he pointed the to anomaly, his voice coming out raspy as he held back the emotion that sprang up at the sight of his late mentor, "We… we were…"

"I'm not going back." Abby suddenly declared, grabbing a hold of his arm in a possessive manner, "We are not going back in there."

Cutter looked bewildered by the situation, once again glancing between them and the younger versions of them, then turning away and exhaling heavily. Stephen on the other hand, seemed to be coming to grips with what was happening, eyeing them cautiously as he took another step towards them, "What's in there?"

Connor gladly would have given him all the details right then and there, but suddenly there was a low growling sound that reminded him what exactly was in the anomaly. Or more accurately, what had finally caught up and was following them through. The Spinosaurus towered over them as it emerged from the anomaly, raptor blood still dripping from it's jaws as it searched for its next victim. Acting on instinct, Connor shoved Abby behind him, drawing one of the carved bone knives he wore on is hip, "Abby, get out of here."

"I'm not leaving you." She hissed, grip tightening on her spear.

He gave a little groan at her stubbornness, though it didn't surprise him, "Fine. When it lunges, go right. I'll go left. We circle back to Stephen."

She give a grim nod, eyes trained on the hostile creature in front of them. As predicted, the Spinosaurus lunged at them, snapping its jaws dangerously. Connor dove to his left to get out of the way, rolling back to his feet and dashing back towards the team. Hopping over the hood of a car, he found himself face to face with Cutter, who was crouching behind the car as he loaded his tranque gun.

"Spinosaurus?" Cutter guessed, barely glancing to check which Connor had joined him.

"Late Cretaceous." Connor confirmed, leaning around the older man to check that Abby had made it to the car across from them. She had. Crouching near Stephen, a few cars away from their past selves, she gave him a quick, reassuring half smile and a thumbs up.

Cutter, on the other hand, seemed to have a less positive view of their situation as he eyed Connor's knife and general appearance up close. Making a snap decision, he gave a quick, barking order, "Stay here."

That wasn't a half bad idea, Connor realized, Stephen and Cutter were much better equipped to deal with the situation at hand and he would much rather be over behind the other car with Abby. Nodding in agreement, he waiting for Cutter and Stephen to break cover, attempting to bully the large theropod back through the anomaly. Once the creature seemed distracted, he darted across to the other car. His hand found Abby's cheek as he crouched beside her, giving her a visual once over for any injuries regardless of the look she gave him that he knew was an insistence that she was fine.

"Connor, what are we going to do?" She whispered, glancing anxiously at their past selves.

"Right now? I don't know." He admitted, smoothing his thumb over her cheek gently in a soothing manner, "We bide our time, I guess. Keep looking for a way back to our time, yeah?"

"Yeah." She agreed, turning her face slightly and pressing a kiss to his palm, "We find a way home."

* * *

The situation was disturbing, to put it mildly. If you had asked Abby what she expected from her work day today, she probably could have guessed about the Spinosaurus, but the dopplegangers? There was no preparing for that.

She was trying to focus on the task at hand, but her attention kept shifting back to the disheveled versions of herself and Connor who were crouching behind a car a few meters away. He was touching her, she noted, his hand on her cheek seemed so overly familiar compared to the way she awkwardly avoided touching her Connor when navigating their newly shared flat. She never wanted to give him the wrong impression about his chances with her, but this other her didn't seem to have any such qualms, she realized. The way she had stepped away from Stephen earlier, closer to the other Connor, and grabbed his arm while insisting that they couldn't go back through the anomaly that brought them there… it unsettled her a little.

It wasn't that she found Connor terribly unattractive. No, in fact, she thought he was kind of cute under the heaps of over sized poor fashion choices and bumbling, babbling awkwardness. But he was far from her type and he was often such a child, it was hard for her to imagine seeing him as a romantic prospect. That was a bit of a shame, she decided, he was an awfully nice boy most of the time. But he was just that. A boy.

Realizing Connor had been unusually quiet beside her since their dopplegangers had turned up, she glanced over at him, taking in his unusually serious face as he stared past her to the other Abby and Connor. Tentatively, she gave him a poke in the arm, "Hey. Are you okay?"

He paused, giving her a surprised look like he'd just noticed she was there, then nodded, "It's kind of unnerving, ain't it?"

"Yeah, a little." She agreed, "We probably should have seen this coming. We are in the time travel business now."

Her attempt at a joke didn't seem to dent his concern, in fact, if anything, he frowned a little deeper, "I considered the possibility, I just… I thought it would be someone more important. Cutter, probably."

She was a little taken aback by that, "You are important, Connor."

"Oh." He blinked at her, then sputtered a little, "I… I mean, I know. I just thought, if one of us ran into a future version of ourself, it would be someone a little more… more. You make sense, but I don't know about me."

She paused, glancing back at the scruffy pair that had come through the anomaly, "I don't think they're here on some kind of secret mission or anything, Conn."

He looked like he wanted to say something else, but before he could even start, he was interrupted by Stephen, knocking on the hood of the car, "If you two are done gossiping, we could use your help out here Abby."

"Right. Sorry." She blushed, retrieving her tranque pistol from where she'd set it down on the ground and checking that it was loaded, "Connor? Can you run the car and get more darts?"

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**Reviews keep me motivated!**


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